...ECF5921 Introduction to International Economics Assignment Question 1 Based on the article and other related readings of your choice, discuss the economic and social factors that have caused individual behavior to shift towards the consumption of unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles. Compare ‘fat taxes’ and other alternatives that can be used address the problem. Which one would you recommend? Why? Answer Based on the article “Stick and carrots”, there are certain factors from economic and social aspects that have caused the individual behavior to shift towards the consumption of unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyles. From the economic perspective, the article “stick and carrots” has given the theory of rational consumption theory which states that as individuals incomes grow, the range and volume of commodities each of us will consume is growing meanwhile. Thus, the expenditures on general goods increases alongside the increasing of our incomes. That is one of the reasons that nowadays general individuals may have more chances to gain fat (as food is one of the general consumption) by purchasing more food, especially cheap and tasty junk food. Moreover, the improving of technology within the food proceeding may also resulted in a fall in the price of food, as well as the availability of a wide variety of cheap foods. Other than just buying more food as the income effect itself, individuals also tend to substitute away from consuming relatively high-priced...
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...macroeconomic context. Brazil’s economy has been expanding steadily for years, a result of a stable political and social climate and long-term reforms set in place by the current and previous government administrations. As much of the world slid into severe recession in late 2008, Brazil continued to expand. Indeed, according to Brazil’s national statistics agency, GDP grew a record 9 percent in the first quarter 0f 2010. National Optimism The robust economy has, in turn, fed the country’s self-confidence. Whether at São Paulo Fashion Week, in the streets, or in the nation’s shopping malls, there is a palpable optimism in the air: Brazil believes in itself. This hasn’t always been the case. When queried on the main factor behind her country’s current optimism, Erika Palomino, arguably the best-known fashion journalist in Brazil, pointed out that a new-found “self-esteem” is as important as the positive numbers: “Because we are a former colony, for a long time we didn’t believe in ourselves and always looked abroad, thinking other countries did things better. That has changed.” Indeed, winning bids to host both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics have had a major impact in boosting the country’s sense of confidence. The Advantages of Insularity: A Strong Domestic Market Brazil’s growing national pride, combined with the country’s relative geographic isolation, has had a positive effect on the country’s domestic fashion market. Sara Andrade, the influential fashion editor of...
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...Amazon Amazon is Britain's most influential retailer - and it doesn’t even make a profit Amazon has become the biggest online retailer in the world and the most influential retailer in Britain, here are a couple of questions that shine a different light on the company. When it generated sales of $15.7bn (£10.1bn) in its most recent quarter to June 30, how big were Amazon’s profits? Zero. It made a net loss of $7m.Given the retrenchment of retailers such as Tesco from the electrical market because of the growth of online sales. What share of the UK electrical market does Amazon have? Every retailer in the country – from Tesco to the corner shop newsagent – talks about how they are battling to evolve their own business to cope with the growing influence of the Seattle-based company. The mighty Tesco has been forced to admit its biggest hypermarkets are outdated and overhaul its non-food range, Comet and HMV have fallen into administration, newsagents have installed lockers where shoppers can collect Amazon orders, and people are now reading books on their Amazon-made Kindles. Even those retailers operating in sectors that Amazon does not currently serve – such as food and fashion – are worried about what happens when it starts. At the same time, so many uncertainties remain about the future of Amazon, launched in 1995 as an online bookstore. The row around the lack of corporation tax paid by online multinationals such as Amazon tended to miss this pivotal point – which...
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...concern, though, is that those conditions that allowed that 7 percent growth are not likely to be prevalent in the years to come, because for over 30 years, China has relied extensively on lower wage rates and export-driven growth. But wage rates have been bid up, as happens; the Chinese are victims of their own success, you could say. And secondly, the rest of the countries in the world are not going through high rates of growth, and they’re not going to be importing the way they had been historically. So, that formula isn’t going to be as successful going forward as it has been. China needs to shift away from an export-driven economy to more of a consumption model. It needs to be mindful about funding its state-owned enterprises, about subsidizing state-owned companies. It needs to lessen its reliance on low-end manufacturing and move up the value chain. By the way, these aren’t my observations; these are observations by Chinese leadership. If you follow any Chinese leader’s speech on China’s economic transformation, these are the points he’ll make. We would call that market rationalism or just normal evolution as a country rises to middle-income status. But there are also some countervailing impulses. There’s a strong streak of economic nationalism; there is a desire to promote national champions; there are protectionist impulses; and investment barriers—the policies called indigenous innovation, where China looks for ways to highlight or promote local companies at the expense...
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...operations i nto the beautiful and lucrative country of Brazil. Feasibility and Marketing Plan: Tumi Luggage in Brazil Dr. Judy Strauss Associate Professor of Marketing University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 Dear Dr. Strauss: We are pleased to present you with Bulletproof’s Feasibility and Marketing Plan for Tumi Luggage in the beautiful and lucrative country of Brazil. This plan will assist you in gaining valuable insight into the opportunity available for Tumi Luggage in Brazil. This plan is the result of an extensive research utilizing both primary and secondary findings. The suggestions proposed are carefully correlated with the market opportunities that are currently present in Brazil. The plan has been constructed in three different sections: (1) analysis of the potential market in Brazil, (2) the technical, financial and organizational elements that should be considered when entering the Brazilian market and (3) a marketing plan, if implemented, could create an overall increase in brand recognition, Tumi’s profitability and overall global market share. It is with confidence that the recommendations contained in this plan will cultivate excellent opportunities for Tumi Luggage, and the Brazilian market. We would like to give you our sincerest gratitude for allowing us to conduct this feasibility study and create suggestions for the company. It is our intention to allow the company to not only meet objectives in the country but also provide them the opportunity to...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Proposal for Greenfield Venture Expansion in Brazil ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Peace of Mind Consulting, LLC ------------------------------------------------- “Where safety is our #1 concern” ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Ulrich Bernard ------------------------------------------------- Financial Analyst ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Kevin Cotter ------------------------------------------------- Operational Analyst ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Jingming Li ------------------------------------------------- Foreign Relations Liaison ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Vincentius Njauw ------------------------------------------------- Economic Analyst ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- April 24, 2012 ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...infrastructure to strategic align with international partners. The highlight of this plan are the targeted rollout sites as well as the amount of users we anticipate using the Wi-Fi service. The targeted gross margin and sales revenue for the first 5 years of this plan are presented in the charts and tables later in this plan We still need to do. These figures represent the key prospects available for public Wi-Fi Service in Brazil. These targets are attainable through a proactive approach and by partnering with the 2014 Brazil Soccer World Cup organizing comity. The following business plan has been created on the basis of extensive market research which showed that there will be an massive demand for public internet services. With Brazil’s mountainous topography and dense popupated landscape it is almost impossible to cover large areas with GSM masts. Therefore it is economically viable to rollout smaller areas with local Wi-Fi access. Consumers demand high speed internet connectivity which technologies like 802.11 b and n will give them. There are multiple other benefits going with Wi-Fi rather than GSM. One such benefit is that the consumer can experience speed greater than 50mb/s without having to own a 4G LTE device. Wi-Fi is much cheaper to roleout than the latest 4G LTE GSM service. The plan highlight that this service will be launched and fully operational ready for 2014 for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Brazil. All ticket holders will get a free 10mb voucher...
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...Fisher is based in San Francisco. 3 Like many chief executives, Ricardo Semler used to wonder what would happen to his company if he were hit by a truck. One night in February 2005, he found out — while driving 85 miles per hour on a highway in Brazil. Miraculously, he was still alive within the 20-inch pancake of crushed steel and shattered glass that remained of his car. Also miraculously, his company, Semco Group, of São Paulo, Brazil, carried on seamlessly during the months he spent lying in intensive care and recuperating from the multiple surgeries he needed to repair his broken neck and battered face. Numbers were met, deals were closed, and business continued pretty much as usual. Mr. Semler, 46, is the leading proponent and most tireless evangelist of what has variously been called participative management, corporate democracy, and “the company as village.” As proposed 45 years ago in a book called The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas McGregor, one of the founders of the field of organizational development, participative management says that organizations thrive best by trusting employees to apply their creativity and ingenuity...
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...Fisher is based in San Francisco. 3 Like many chief executives, Ricardo Semler used to wonder what would happen to his company if he were hit by a truck. One night in February 2005, he found out — while driving 85 miles per hour on a highway in Brazil. Miraculously, he was still alive within the 20-inch pancake of crushed steel and shattered glass that remained of his car. Also miraculously, his company, Semco Group, of São Paulo, Brazil, carried on seamlessly during the months he spent lying in intensive care and recuperating from the multiple surgeries he needed to repair his broken neck and battered face. Numbers were met, deals were closed, and business continued pretty much as usual. Mr. Semler, 46, is the leading proponent and most tireless evangelist of what has variously been called participative management, corporate democracy, and “the company as village.” As proposed 45 years ago in a book called The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas McGregor, one of the founders of the field of organizational development, participative management says that organizations thrive best by trusting employees to apply their creativity and ingenuity...
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...transformed from a state of financial crisis in the 1980’s to become a leading agriculture exporter in the late 1990’s. Economic reforms implemented by the Real Plan were a response to a bankrupt decade of failed economic plans and high inflation rates. In this period agriculture played a key role in the control of the inflation and in the stabilization of the economy. The domestic environment of the Brazilian economy and the role of agriculture helped Brazil to develop a more active role and led it to seek for a leadership position in the international agricultural negotiations. On the eve on the WTO’s Cancun Round of negotiation a new coalition of developing countries formed the G-20. The Group was born from a Brazilian initiative and for the first time a group of developing countries stood up against the developed countries in the agriculture negotiations. 3 Acknowledgments I would like to dedicate this thesis to my mother Ana and my brother Matheus. Who believed in me even when I did not. I love you guys. I would like to thank my Father for the support, during the whole process, even at 4 am, William Wyle my good friend and housemate, Celina Italiano and her beautiful family, my adviser Anthony Jarvis, who was always a sea of calm and never lost hope in me and also to thank all my friends and family who through phone calls or emails were there for me. 4 Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..……I. Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….II....
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...Which was the first firm to use the term “management consultant” Booz Allen Hamilton A business strategy for carefully analyzing operations to improve overall efficiency, lower costs and increase quality in order to lower a company's environmental impact. Name the strategy and the company which created it. green sigma,ibm Which tool talks about business growth opportunities in terms of product and market? Ansoff Matrix It was introduced as an experiment covering a 40km radius with the support of the UNESCO, Philips and the US Govt. in 1959. The facility was extended to Bombay in 1972, followed by Srinagar , Calcutta and Madras . It was delinked from its mother organization in 1976 and given the status of an independent corporation. the company offered Initial Public Offerings in 1982 and was raking in Rs. 10 billion in ad revenue by 1987. What company are we talking about Doordarshan This merger between the two companies was called “wedding in heaven”. Name the two companies. daimler and Chrysler A big consulting powerhouse published a report on the banking industry during the financial crises. Name the firm and the title of the report. pwc and banking banana skins 2010 Name the parent company who owns this product. This company had 5 products in the same market but decided to phase out and retain only this product because it believed that the market segment of the 5 products is blurred and cannibalizing each other’s market share. Dell It was a major...
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...participation in health, nutrition, and education services. Ten years later, PROGRESA, now Oportunidades, covers more than 5 million households in all 31 Mexican states. Approximately 20 countries have adopted a pilot or full-scale CCT program, and another 20 countries have expressed interest in starting one. Most current programs are in Latin America, but others can be found in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and interest is increasing among African countries struggling with extreme poverty and low human capital. CCT programs are increasingly perceived as being “a magic bullet in development.” Are they? This chapter presents a review of the rationale for and operation of CCT programs, an assessment of their effectiveness, and a discussion of key issues facing countries considering these interventions or reforming existing programs. How Do CCT Programs Work? CCT programs have the following characteristics: they are targeted to poor households, and the cash transfers are usually paid to mothers. Some programs also include transfers such as nutritional supplements or school supplies for children. Cash transfers may be made as a lump sum or determined based on the number 300 mIchelle adato and john hoddInott of children, with the amount varying by the children’s ages and genders. In some countries, higher transfer amounts are paid for girls’ school attendance and for secondary school attendance. In return for these...
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...Importance of BRICS Bank Sudhakar Singh PGPSM 2015 National Institute of Securities Market The ‘BRICs’ acronym, in its most common usage, derives from a report to investors by Goldman Sachs’ analyst Jim O’Neill, signaling the new dynamic that four large countries; Brazil, Russia, India and China, were bringing to the global economy at the beginning of the new millennium. A conclusion advanced in the Goldman Sachs report was that the BRICs should be included in the G7 as their macroeconomic significance increased in the decade to come. From a global investment angle, the world has moved on from there to a wider set of dynamic emerging countries, including a number of fast-growing African nations, as more developing countries find their own way to catch up on growth, resisting world recessionary tendencies (O’Neill 2001 2011). The investor’s world of emerging markets has thus expanded beyond the BRICs, even as questions are raised about the sustainability of growth in the BRICs themselves, with their structural and political challenges and their vulnerability to the uncertainties of global monetary developments. (http://mobile.opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/3599#.VemUOn2MgQ0) The grouping was originally known as "BRIC" before the inclusion of South Africa in 2010. The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs;...
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...S VEJA: SNEAKERS WITH A CONSCIENCE w 9B10M089 Kim Poldner wrote this case under the supervision of Professor Oana Branzei solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmission without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca. Copyright © 2010, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: (A) 2010-10-25 THE FIRST FIVE YEARS Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion (see Exhibit 1), recent business graduates in their twenties, had traveled the planet looking for a cool way to do business.1 In 2005, they settled in Brazil, where they founded Veja,2 the first ethical sneaker company in the world. The Veja sneakers were made from wild latex sourced from the Amazon river area (Amazonia) to mitigate rubber tree deforestation, from Brazilian organic cotton to enhance biodiversity and from vegetable-tanned...
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...Table of contents: 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 2. Critical review a well managed organization with culture of learning and innovation in international markets…………………………………………………………………….3 2.1 Literature review of a well managed organization with culture of learning and innovation in international markets………………………………..……………………………3 2.2 Examining Wal-Mart’s characteristics to the extent of learning culture and innovation …………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 3. Critical review internationalization theories and the case of Wal-Mart from 1994 onwards……………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 3.1 Theories of internationalization…………………..……………………….……………………...7 3.2 Wal-Mart’s internationalization strategies from 1994 onwards……………..……9 4. Wal-Mart entry Brazilian and Japanese market……………………………………………….10 4.1 Considerable issues of the company………………………………………………………… 11 4.2 Opportunity in those markets……………………………………………………………………13 5. Wal-Mart’s entry modes in international markets - Examining with Brazilian and Japanese markets…………………………………….…………………………………………… ….13 5.1 Mode of entry to Brazil ………………….…..……………………………………………………..13 5.2 Mode of entry to Japan……………………………………………………………………………….14 6. Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………15 7. References………………………………………………………………………………………………………….15 8. Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………………………………16 ...
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